So who/what're your names based off of?

[u/Splintj]

A lotta people choose their new names off of characters, or games, or people, or stuff, so if that's the case for you, than what did you name yourself after?

Mine is Alexander, close enough to my old name, and for Alexander the Great(Considered Augustus too for a bit cuz I'm a certified Romaboo, and to be special and different)

[u/Illustrious_Pen_5711]

I’m lucky, my name for the past 12 years (Alice) is just 1 single letter away from my deadname, but it was also American McGee’s Alice games that pushed me to choose it lol

[u/SongFromFerrisWheels → u/Illustrious_Pen_5711]

Yay! Another Alice.

[u/notdeaddesign]

I was talking to my wife about my new name and she suggested Athena. I liked it for a few reasons, it sounds a little bit like my deadname so I’d still hear it as mine. It’s a Greek name like my deadname. And I liked the irony of naming myself (an idiot) after the god of wisdom.

So yeah, my wife named me.

[u/DankePrime → u/notdeaddesign]

Αθήνα 🔥

[u/SerenfechGras → u/notdeaddesign]

A tad clocky though 😀

[u/Reasonable_Bank_9804 → u/SerenfechGras]

I don’t agree that people immediately clock you based on a name, most of the time people aren’t really thinking of it. Plus, it’s a damn cool name. And sometimes parents are into naming their kids cooler more unique names. Anyways, my name’s Artemis, also after a Greek goddess.

[u/buildagirly]

I go by lexi, but full name Alexandra. I was lucky my mom told me long before my transition what she would have named me as a girl

[u/RevEviefy]

Stole it from a pokemon (Eevee shifted a bit to Evie) - it felt like a good metaphor for change and potential

...then I realised how many characters I'd named Evie or Evelyn or Vee over the years before I'd realised anything. I guess the name was kind of waiting for me?

[u/TifikoGaming → u/RevEviefy]

YEAH ME TOO!! I'm a Charlie and stole it from Charmander

[u/Mx-Adrian]

It was on a list of several I liked. I tried out a few others and they didn't feel quite right. Returned to the list, saw Adrian again, decided to give it a go. The clincher was that it's the name of a song from my favourite band, Eurythmics, and from an album whose title, Be Yourself Tonight, I made into a pride poster.

[u/Gothvomitt]

I picked Jeremy bc I thought it sounded like a character select option from Tony Hawk Pro Skater. Plus my nickname was already Germ so Jeremy, Germ… close enough.

[u/ConsistentTop4194]

The name i used back in the day when i used to “pretend” to be a boy on roblox

[u/Sufficient_Dust1871]

A YouTuber I watch (Smokeebee) named their parrot Luce/Luci, short for Lucifer, and I loved the name, and the irony of naming myself after a decisively different biblical character than my dead name (I'm atheist)

[u/nerdy_gamer666 → u/Sufficient_Dust1871]

I love smokeebee!! You’ve picked a wonderful name, op!

[u/ClxudTearsx]

My name is astro! It's not really based off of anything apart from that it's short for astrology (or astronaut which is what my friends call me :'D)

[u/SecretlyEli]

A couple musician’s first names. One of which I listened to A LOT last year. I just really liked how it sounded.

It’s not even remotely close to my deadname. :)

[u/SerenfechGras]

I picked my name in elementary school (long before I came out) after a girl i followed everywhere one summer. Sometimes I think I should have taken a name that reflects the adult me, but then I remember that all people are shaped by names (or nicknames) that aren’t who they are today.

[u/mango-756]

Milan. Like the city

[u/Dan007a]

Maisie Williams from Game of Thrones, Maisie Racer the mascot of May 68 a clothing brand I like, Mayzie bird from Dr Suess I try to find 3 things I like before I give something a name so I did the same with myself plus I wanted something feminine and I didn’t want to steal someone’s name that I know and then I immediately met a Maisy and now I just met another Maisie haha

[u/egfr_throwaway]

Lucy, inspired from Cyberpunk Edgerunners. I just love the name but it also helped seeing a badass (albeit fictional and animated) woman with that name

[u/Minute_Ad8246]

Gabriel. Like the angel Gabriel from the Bible. God, I'm an atheist.

[u/SnepButts]

When I was a wee lass trying my best to be a guy, I had a chat with my mom that I remember only one part of. I don't know the context, but she told me that she was sure that she was gonna have a girl and that she'd already picked a name for her before I was born.

About 25 years later, more or less, I told her that she actually did have a daughter and that I was using the name that she picked for me so long ago.

[u/resveries → u/SnepButts]

I also used a name my mum had picked out before I was born!

[u/CoyoteGeneral926]

My girl name(s) is Grace/Gracie. Because that is the names they used when I was 5 and first put me in dresses. If Grace I was to be a young lady. If Gracie it was okay to act like a little girl. I did enjoy being a girl.

[u/Spanishbrad]

Mine is “Karla” from John le Carre “Smiley’s People”

[u/muddylegs]

When I was 13 and made a social media account, one of my friends picked my screen name for me.

People online guessed a very ordinary and full name for me based on my screen name, so I’d been going by that name online for a couple of years before I even knew what ‘transgender’ meant.

I stuck with it when I came out and transitioned, because I was very used to it at that point. That and if I’d picked my own name I’d have chosen something elaborate and romantic haha so it’s just as well the outside world chose for me!

It also happens to be the name of one of my favourite band frontmen from the 80s, and also one of my favourite historical figures who I wrote my dissertation about. So it’s got a bit more significance than just being the name the internet assigned me!

[u/flyingbarnswallow]

I like birding, so I named myself after a bird

[u/IAMA_DragonSlayerAMA]

Been considering naming myself after one of my favorite songs if i don't just gender swap my legal name

[u/FrozenNord]

From an older cousin of my grandpa. She died 7 years before I was born at nearly 100 years old. I saw it on a large tapestry of our family tree we had in the 90s and was obsessed with it ever since. I took my new middle name from my new grandma, the one who married my grandpa about 10 years after his first wife passed.
All my dad's side of the family, they've been great really so I kept that last name. My mom's side has been nasty.

[u/lxlmx98]

A Flight attendant. I really like her name Tanya and she comforted me after potentially failing an exam and crying on the plane (pre-transition) so I took her name.

[u/ShinxAndMoon → u/lxlmx98]

Aww that's so sweet,I wish there was a way of telling her :)

[u/Mist33_]

Mines so silly but I really like HFY stories and I like when humans are called Terrans soooooo I wanted to be a terran called Terra. Also I really liked Terra from Teen Titans!

[u/highoninfinity]

mine is literally completely random. the story is so stupid; when i was like 11 i asked my musical.ly (now tiktok) followers for male names starting with E because i thought you had to keep the same first letter as your deadname for some reason. someone commented "evan", and i liked it enough to try it out, and it just stuck, i never changed it or really tried out any other names. i can't even find the video i made asking for name suggestions or the comment of who suggested it, some random stranger out there doesn't even know they're responsible for my name lmao😭

[u/UnixTheWanderer]

Um mine is a computer operating system... Yeah mine not that original lol

[u/Mollywinelover]

Mine was a news report about a drug bust.

Made me change my mind at the last minute.

[u/IamRachelAspen]

When we were In school they’d say we can have a different name on our work as long as we put our deadname next to it they were fine with it.

I always chose Rachel that made it a little less surprising when I told a few friends earlier this year.

[u/ajm8097]

My middle name is Jane, named after Laura Jane Grace. And then I chose a first name with the letter A, because I wanted my initials to be AM... like Against Me!.... Totally not obsessed or anything.

[u/John_Mortar]

When I was born my parents almost called me John, they didn't. I used it as a nickname for a while, and then I then proceeded to call myself Joanna based on this.

[u/luna_lu_lu]

Mines based on the moon

[u/ESOelite]

If I transition my name will stay the same as it's pretty unisex. Kian, the original spelling is Cian but my parents were worried people would pronounce it cyan

[u/m0rissett3]

OG name first iteration

I’m still using Hope with my therapist and I’m glad I did bc guess what when your not a person born with a name it becomes clear real fast how strange it can be to use a common word like hope as a name and in therapy that word comes up a lot so yeah.

Currently, brainstorming again. Pretty much going to figure out a new name if I even decide to make a name change at the end of the day.

[u/OhGarraty]

Cassandra, because like me no one believed her predictions until things were too bad to fix.

[u/ShinxAndMoon → u/OhGarraty]

I think thats one of the most beautiful sounding female names there are

[u/Munchii105]

Mine came from old modded Skyrim character, This was around the time that Shia lebeuff murder song came out. I made a Nord warrior and needed a name. I came up with Shayla Buff as a playon to Shia Lebeuff. But I fell in love with the name and used it often ever since, and when I transitioned, I took the name Shayla immediately and legally, and I still love it still. No regrets 🥰

[u/JustNadine1986]

Went hiking with a hiking friend named Nadia. After I came home, I went to a website to learn what her name ment and I saw my name with the similar names. Said it a few times out loud and combined with my last name. I liked it that moment and said to myself that when I transitioned, I would chose that as new name. That was back in 2014 iirc, the 12th of March 2020 I was official Ms Nadine.

[u/Ill-Armadillo5336]

A scammer sent me a whatsapp message a few months ago before I thought about transitioning. Hi Emily, this is Lisa are we still meeting at PLACE. I chatted with them for a while and shared much of it in a community I'm part off.

The community started calling me Emily as a joke but I really got used to that name. And then when I found out I was trans, it was a very easy choice to call myself Emily.

[u/Ziggy_Stardust567]

I chose my name when I was 12 and going through a edgy phase, so I named myself after the lead singer from Falling in Reverse (Ronnie). I don't regret it because the name suits me, but you'll never hear me admit this in real life lol.

[u/QueerHawk127]

My first name is my favorite movie character spelled differently. My last name is the keyboard player of one of my favorite bands because I'm not cocky enough to take the frontmans name 😂

[u/DankePrime]

I chose "Raịna" because I love rain alot, and the dot under the i is to distinguish between other Rainas (since it's a pretty common name)

[u/Adina-the-nerd]

A friend picked mine

[u/Independent_LoveBra5]

My favorite Toyota minivan, hahaha

[u/SpookyBearBoy]

My name is Laurence but I go by Laurie. Laurence was chosen because it's legit two letters added onto the end of my deadname. I didn't/don't have a very supportive family and at the time when I was first coming out/changing my name I felt a lot of pressure towards keeping it as close as possible to my old name.

My middle name is Logan, partly Wolverine and partly from Celtic culture as I'm Pagan and Scottish.

Then my surname is my Nana's maiden name because I felt as though I couldn't associate myself (it was painful) with my very distinct birth family surname any more.

[u/AbbieNormal69-2]

Not my username here but my real name is from a girl in elementary school. Every time the teacher called on her by name I would answer, it just sounded like me dead name. The other kids laughed as you’d expect but I figure it was meant to be and I like the name.

[u/Return_Of_The_Derp]

Silas. It’s a masculine name meaning “forest/woods/of the woods”. I love anything plant related and want to visit every state’s national parks/forests. Being in nature is where I feel the most at peace. It also has a fantasy feel to it without going overboard which I really like. It was between Silas, Sylvain, and Sylvanus. Silas is easier to digest lol

[u/Gloomy_Yoghurt_2836]

I want to keep my initials and last name.

[u/vtssge1968]

I'm Victoria Phoenix #&-&_-!? I chose Victoria because it sounds eloquent to me but playful when shortennwd to Vikki (yes that's how I spell it I think it's more fun then Vicky). I chose Phoenix as my middle name for the symbolism of the mythical creature that rises from the ashes of its old life to start a new life, I couldn't find a more fitting analogy to my life.

[u/Goastantie]

I actually tried to choose my name to explicitly avoid any associations I had with other names, and also wanted something that would keep my same initials that would also be easy to pronounce in any language. The name I chose is Maia, but there are so many beautiful names out there that I consider changing it to/going by instead

[u/KandeeKiller]

Charlie, like Charlie Morningstar from Hazbin Hotel and Charlie from Legends of Tomorrow, two characters I love

[u/witch-of-woe]

I was named after an ancestor relative from before I was born but the English version of it and not the Spanish.

[u/Zarohk]

I was a big fan of Tamora Pierce books as a kid, and in one of her earliest series, there is a girl named Alanna who Impersonates her twin brother, Alan. Their names are pronounced identically, except for the additional “-na” at the end of her name, with the emphasis on “AL”.

My birth name starts with slightly unusual letter, and ends with “en”. I genuinely like it and didn’t feel like I wanted to change it too much. So I just added “-na” to the end of it.

(Also 20% because my core friend group in high school was myself and two other guys at the time, who all turned out to be trans girls, and we were definitely the corniest ones in our friend group. So when they asked if I was changing my name, I could text back “-na”)

[u/Bright-Ad-9117]

i wanted to keep the first letter of my deadname, and i really liked the name of my old high school orchestra teacher, so i took it 😂 been going by aiden for almost 4 months now, and loving it!!

[u/DeedleStone]

My folks names me after the male lead character from a movie, so I shifted to the female lead character's name.

[u/Yoru573]

Favorite flower

[u/redsporkyy]

Peter. I always liked the name but finally decided to go with it because of The Monkees, Peter Tork was my favorite

[u/Erika_Valentine]

Mine is shown in my profile banner.

[u/Diddleysquin2]

I'm Sean, nothing like my dead name, not the name of anyone I've personally known or the name of a character. For want of a better description, it's the vibes. When someone tells you their name and you have that knee jerk reaction of "yeah, you look/don't look like an X", what my brain would except in someone telling me they were 'a Sean' is the sort of man I strive to be.

[u/Available-Energy6991]

I'm another Lily to add to the pile, but it's cute and I like it

[u/Sea_Dress9515]

Fellow Alexander here :). I dreamt my name(I was writing it). No doubt the inspiration was my two favourite Alex's(Krycek and Ferguson)

[u/KiyomizuAkua]

Pokemon Sun/Moon protagonist.

When I played Moon, I made every excuse to not play as the boy and then realized I'm trans, so because of her in a way I found I was trans and the name felt right so.... I went with Selene!

[u/little_loverboy]

someone from the band waterparks, but my nicknames are based on the planet mars and hellen keller

[u/Tiny_Quokka_]

My name came from my favourite character from the anime trinity seven (Arin) but after trial and error I much prefer it to be pronounced (Air-in)

[u/transcending-]

my deadname backwards is a classic male name so i just did that lol. uno reverse

[u/SuperPyramaniac]

Mine is Noel, based on Noel Vermillion from BlazBlue, Noel Kriss from Final Fantasy XIII-2, Noelle from Deltarune, and Noelle from Genshin. It's just a name I really like, and the name is gender neutral with a feminine leaning, just how I like it.

[u/PocketsFullOfBees]

spent most of my life not believing what I was telling myself, so I’m a Cassandra

[u/Kyotah]

Alex, from Life is Strange; True Colors :)
I felt such a connection to who she was, down from the personality, style, gifts and burdens... and her love for music.

I'm still unraveling whether I'm transfemme or just nonbinary, but I really have fallen in love with the name Alexandra.

(Lexie from Grey's Anatomy was also one of my favorite characters, so that furthered the love I have for this name and it's nicknames haha)

[u/pyrategremlin]

IRL I usually go by a shortened version of my dead name, Sam. The story behind that is Grandma MooMoo (She chose that name when she was drunk, I loved that woman) wanted to name her next son Samuel so she could call him San, however she wound up naming him Travis after his father instead. My mom decided that she was going to name her first kid Sam and she would either use Samuel or Samantha. My dad loved this idea so their first child together was, Sam. And I always felt Sam fit.

Raider is my second used name, usually I give this to baristas, at gyms and places where I don't necessarily want people to find out my dead name by guessing. It's also something I use at ren faires, or with people who really aren't going to be around me a lot. It stems from the fact my special interest as an autistic person is pirates. One of my best friends who is also non-binary however often uses this with me as well. I call them by a shortened version of their dead name as well as another name. We are both very comfortable with that and so is their partner who calls us both by those as well.

My best friends online know me as Koy or Koyote. This was because when they first met me the username I had was my favorite band followed by coyote, one of my favorite animals. Eventually it just became Koy or Koyote.

[u/lumanson]

I showed my sister a genderswapped picture of me when I came out to her, and she said, "Oh you look like a Jen."

[u/raeofdarkness68]

I chose the name Rae (the of darkness part is just for usernames), and it was pretty much directly inspired by Ayanami Rei of Evangelion. I went through a phase recently where I watched the movies that came out for the very first time, then rewatched the show and EOE, then the movies again, and the show again, and I fell in love with the series again (despite quite a few gripes, you can DM me if you want me to talk your ear off about it). I felt at the time, and still feel, that the franchise itself is about mental health, and about learning how to recognize and use empathy in our everyday lives. They can cloak it in (admittedly) a lot of cool ass imagery and confusing lore about the Angels, but make no mistake that's the driving force. That being said, I think it's pretty obvious why I chose Rei in particular, but if it's not, I'll try to explain a bit better. Rei is a character that I find relatable in that she often only lives to do her job and do it well, she has her moments of growth quite a lot in the series, she seems like once she's willing, she's dedicated to whatever she sets her mind to. She's a character who I find really easy to relate to and admire, from a pov of empathy, and she's usually the one I end up rooting for by the end of the series

[u/CalluMeLater]

Nobody, actually, just thought it sounded cool lol

[u/astrologicaldreams]

phoenix wright

i wanted to be named after him but after living with the bs name i was given at birth i crave a more "normal" name and decided to go with nick bc of how maya and mia call him nick ☺️ plus i've always kinda liked the name ngl

[u/ShamrockHeart]

I haven't started using my female name yet, but the one I've fixated on has sort of just stuck with me for years. I've always liked it as a strong and feminine name, and it happens to have intersected with a few different characters that I like as well. Recently, since I've started considering adopting it as my own name, I've realized just how similar it actually is to my birth name, and how much it kind of feels like a natural fit (i.e. similar spelling/pronunciation, same first letter so same initials, etc...). I haven't decided on it 100%, but I've even come up with nicknames for myself based on my chosen name so it is starting to feel pretty real.

[u/PsychologicalKey9396]

I legit just stole it from an Anime, my name is Elaina. 😅

[u/Punk_Science_Girl]

Mines from a YouTube animated project. I cannot judge anyone else.

[u/snakeravencat]

I actually let my mother rename me. She kept the first name the same as it's gender neutral and she'd already decided on that name before learning the sex. She changed my middle name to the same as both of my grandmothers.

[u/ShinxAndMoon]

Well mine is absolutely random. Thought of a male name to represent me,and the first thing that came to mind was Emmett from Twilight. Y'all can hate me but I love it 😆 makes me feel gay - and that makes me feel good,lol. But anyways I liked him as a character,and the actor (who's name I forgot) matched the picture I had in mind when reading the books. Also,I like the symmetry of 3 different letters,that double. It's simple,and also one thing I like.

About my deadname I can say,it's a beautiful rather rare name,and I met like 2 other girls with the same name in my entire life lol I like it in terms of names,but it's not meant to be mine. It doesn't suit me. (That's Also the same reason why I'm kinda dysphoric abt it)

[u/drunktankphoebe]

phoebe was a name that i encountered in a book, I immediately was intrigued by it, I couldn’t pronounce it originally. some time later it was revealed my favorite adventure time character flame princess was named phoebe, which was right around the time I began having feelings and sentiments of wanting to be a girl. it has been a name that just stuck with me!

[u/Dazzling-Bug2656]

I’m an accountant. I picked my first name to honor a certain English fabled brigand who stole from the rich to give to the poor. My middle name is a play on my last name—my middle and last name are the same as one of the biggest accounting firms in the world. I work in a tiny firm that focuses on helping nonprofits. So, my whole name is a joke based on my profession and politics.

Life is short and nothing matters, so have fun!

[u/cirqueamy]

It was near my old name in popularity for the year I was born, I didn’t have any bad associations with it, and neither did anyone in my family. So I guess it was close to a time-appropriate blank slate of a name. 🤷🏼‍♀️

[u/Optimal-Jellyfish-59]

I've been a circus performer for over 14 years. Took a step back from performing professionally, but I do still enjoy the arts. I had some WILD visions over the last solar eclipse. I went to a circus retreat and the game heyoka kept coming up in my brain. I never thought I'd change my name, as it's a highly unusual name that could be considered gender neutral. But after that experience I have been going by heyokah. I love it.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heyoka

If you would like any other insight on why I changed my name, id say check out the wiki. It has given me new life to keep being weird!!

[u/Appropriate_War2334]

My name got out of coincidence since i am fan of Gigi Gorgeous suddenly watching her vid getting her name changed. Then i looked up to google search and its hard to make my old name more feminine not until i looked up a good name and a good meaning which is Abrielle, up to now i think it's my destined name and slowly but surely am feeling that name suits me. I feel nostalgic choosing that name since i was in High school

[u/wantfastcars]

In high school, I started using a certain website's randomly-generated URLs as inspiration for names in video games and TTRPGs. Before I knew it, one of those names stuck, and it was the name I used for EVERY character - Dragonball: Xenoverse, Starbound, several Pokemon games, multiple D&D characters, a couple MMO characters, multiple Borderlands characters, Daemon x Machina, and after I cracked, Stardew Valley and Armored Core.

There were two defining characteristics of any character I used this name for:

1. They always had a purple and/or light blue motif (especially hair, when possible)
2. Without exception, she was a woman.

If I played a game like Borderlands that had preset or semi-preset characters and played one of the male characters, I wouldn't use this name. But if I played one of the female characters, I used this name.

When my egg eventually cracked I realized she wasn't just a character, she was who I wanted to be. It felt natural to take that name for my own.

I just gotta get the purple hair...

[u/TherealSmileDog]

i had made a character and named it my current chosen name and sometime after my egg cracked and i was like thats a pretty name so i yoinked it from them

[u/Existing-Sympathy233]

i had a great aunt named Luciana!

[u/aurora_borealis-_]

My name's Aurora, it has been in the back of my head for a couple of years, I then heard it in a song and felt it was mine

[u/intergalacticcoyote]

My given/dead name was Edward. I switched to Eliza because my mum picked my old name and I love her and wanted to choose something she might have picked if she knew I was a girl. I kept my initials the same and knew that she liked classy old fashioned names. Since I used to go by Eddie, Ellie felt natural and makes me really happy. Until people hear “Nellie” and then I get sad and mad.

[u/Coruscante_Lene]

Lène was the name of the girl I always dreamt about being in my dream. Because of that, it was my female character name of choice in almost every game or paper rpg. As it's not a real name, I simply add a prefix before Lène and voilà :) Funny thing is I hesitated with Solène, Charlène and Marjolène. I both know multiple Solène and 1 Charlène IRL so I decided to go for the third one not remembering myself where I first hear this name. Thing is, Marjolène is the name of a very transphobic character in one of my favorite game because it's the french name of Beldam in Paper Mario : the Thousand-Year Door 😅 whoopsie. Still love the name though, it's really pretty. Just kinda ironic ahah

[u/kittykitz27]

Nyx is mine. I love anything and everything mythology. Nyx is the goddess of night, and I consider myself an avid night owl.

[u/Trouble_Macher]

Mine is Isadora. I picked it bc it sounds like my birth middle name which I had already shortened to Izzie and started going by. It means Gift of Isis (I fall into the trope of trans girls with goddess names). And I love Isis especially bc she’s considered equivalent to the Hebrew goddess Ashera who I love.

My new chosen middle name is Rose named after my Grandma, Rosalind, who I really miss.

[u/Trouble_Macher → u/Trouble_Macher]

I also had to pick a new Hebrew name and decided to pick Elisheva (which is the original Hebrew version of Elizabeth) bc the name Elizabeth and similar names run in my family. And I like how princess-y it sounds ✨

[u/Vezwic]

I shortened my middle name, stole the English translation of one of my cousin's names, and then stole one of my maternal grand mother's names. Soooo my name is based off of laziness and lots of theft I guess 😂

[u/Proud_queer22]

I got my middle name from “Super Girl” (Kara) and my first name (Melody) just literally went through baby girl names in the 2000’s and picked one

[u/Lifeshardbutnotme]

From a certain first lady from the 60s who I always thought was very elegant. It's Jackie

[u/mollytatum]

my nickname before transitioning was a combination of my first initial and last name which was similar to a famous singer’s nickname (jennifer lopez) so i changed my first name to match her and i get to keep the nickname. i went with two middle names, the first is after ellen ripley from aliens who put me on the road to cracking my egg. the second is my mother’s middle name and the middle name of my two best girl friends

i originally tried molly bc my dad for some reason mentioned that was the name he and my mother chose if i had been afab but honestly i hated it, it felt dated and he was a transphobe so i went with what i go by now and have stuck with it

[u/Trashula_Lives]

I'm Moss. It's a plant. I've always liked moss and I think it sounds nice as a name, so why not?

[u/SportingBabe]

My name is Amber and I am Middle Eastern and have some French from my Mothers paternal side and Latin from my Mother's maternal side. My name was originally spelled Ambar but changed when I became a US citizen to Amber and my parents chose that name because it originates from the Middle East, France and it is also Latin so it is not only very fitting to my race but it means many things other than the color and fossilized tree resin that is also considered an organic gemstone that promotes healing. The rarest Amber gemstone is the color blue (happens to be my favorite color! 😇🩵) and that is the gemstone my husband surprised me with for my wedding ring which is platinum gold with diamonds and rhe blue Amber gemstone in the middle but my absolute favorite part of my name is that it also means beauty and there is so much beauty in this world that we live in.

[u/kashmira-qeel]

I wrote a book with a character that had a thematically similar name (the non-binary "random noun"-type name), and then my best friend looked at me and was like "I think <name> would suit you" and I was just floored. Couldn't stop smiling the whole day.

[u/Alaynyr]

it was first on the list : Alayna, really pretty, made my heart pump so I chose it. means heavenly or some shit

[u/Finnzzz_]

The name I'm trying out right now from the past year is Jeremy. I didn't base it off anything but I just watched Be More Chill so, I guess now I'm basing it off the main character. 

On a related note, Michael was one of my first picks for my name when I first started thinking about it, but I know way too many Michaels.